FAA Says Telecom Errors Triggered Backup Switch Before US Flight Outage
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Control tower at Londrina Airport in Paraná, Brazil. File photo. |
WASHINGTON — September 23, 2026
A series of error messages on a telecommunications circuit prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to switch to a backup fiber line before a major outage disrupted air travel across the East Coast on Monday. The failure affected thousands of flights and exposed vulnerabilities in the agency’s aging communications infrastructure.
The FAA said its contractor, L3Harris, advised switching to the backup line on Sunday so technicians could troubleshoot the primary circuit at a Philadelphia air traffic control facility. On Monday, a contractor working for New Jersey Transit accidentally cut the backup fiber line near New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The loss of both connections left the FAA unable to maintain normal communications at a key facility, forcing the agency to halt or restrict incoming flights at airports including those serving New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington. About 9,500 US flights were delayed or canceled during the disruption, according to the FAA.
The outage occurred as about 130 world leaders and dozens of ministers were arriving in New York for the high-level session of the United Nations General Assembly. The timing added pressure to an already busy period for airports in the northeastern United States.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the incident showed the limits of the existing air traffic communications system. He said the current infrastructure does not provide enough backup capacity when a major connection fails.
The US government has already begun a broader effort to modernize the country's air traffic control system. Congress approved $12.5 billion for the program last year, but officials now say substantially more funding will be needed.
Bedford estimated that the overall upgrade could cost about $27 billion. He said Congress would need to approve another $10.5 billion, including funding from other accounts, to complete the work.
The FAA plans to replace outdated copper telecommunications wiring with fiber by September 2027. Bedford said that upgrade alone will not eliminate the possibility of future outages because the agency also needs a more modern telecommunications architecture with greater redundancy.
He said the FAA should move toward a system operating over an established commercial network, citing Verizon and AT&T as examples. The administrator also acknowledged that the need for a new telecommunications system had not received enough funding in the first phase of the modernization program.
L3Harris had not immediately responded to a request for comment on the events leading to the switch to the backup line. The latest explanation adds detail to the sequence of failures that turned a problem with one telecommunications circuit into a wider disruption of US air travel.
